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"Her naoes to the university, just like Antonia did"

Violet felt sick She wondered if there were any other connections between the two girls, other than the school they attended She thought about this new girl, Casey, and tried to iine what she was like, tried not to think about what she ht now

She hoped they could find her before it was too late

"What about you?" he asked "It was a rough day How are you holding up?" Violet didn’t want to talk about what had happened at theafter her feelings to be nice "Can you coet so if she could still work

Violet shook her head "I don’t think so Not yet" Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to stave off the fogginess that threatened to steal over her once more "Besides, there’s not much I can do anyway," she added, as if that was the only thing keeping her away, her inability to do what the others could

Rafe went silent again, longer than necessary, and Violet wondered if there was so But then he just softly added, "If you change your mind--"

"I won’t," she stated resolutely She didn’t want to know any more, not about Antonia Cornett and not about Casey Atkins Not now Not while she was feeling like this

"Fine," Rafe said "Good night, V Sleep tight"

Violet hung up, ignoring the odd sensation that penetrated the leaden veil surrounding her Sleep tight? she thought, wishing she had the strength to s? The barely concealed tenor she’d heard in his voice So soft on her?

She shook it off, certain she’d only iined the tone in his voice She was disoriented, she rely to Casey Atkins

Rubbing her teet any sleep noith the fate of aon her conscience

After a few ot up and paced across the roo on top of a pile of rumpled T-shirts in the top drawer, and she plucked theht

They were easier to s than she’d i ht nothing was happening, that the pills weren’t working And then her eyelids fluttered, growing heavier and heavier Until, at last, she could no longer hold them open

And a dark, drea the early hours of the , the dreams found their way in They were dark drea Violet in theirher way to the surface At first the ies were har in and out of focus, colliding and splintering and reforain Happy childhood memories, mostly Flashes of Jay and her friends Su Slu, picnics, cherry Slurpees, and school carnivals Just quick snapshots that es becaruesome Glimpses of dead squirrels and possums A cat with eed out And the face of the first dead person she’d ever seen--a girl whose eyes had been wide and pleading Although what Violetvoice that had called her away froh the woods behind their hoes thatViolet that her ability was nothing less than a curse, where she saw the faces of killers The twoviolently, brutally Mike and Megan’s father, a man who’d murdered his wife years earlier, and then killed himself in a final act of desperation And her uncle, someone she loved almost as much as her own father, whose i the life of his own niece from the hands of a serial killer She saw too the sadistic James Nua, who’d ended the lives of his very own children

Finally, the last man she saw didn’t have a face in her dream; she simply knew him as the collector--but he was there too, a dark, featureless ling to remain afloat and desperate to find her way to the surface and break free froasped at the saripped in the spasen savaged her lungs as she gulped h ti finally found a rhyth visions faded, becoh, Violet thought She had to take control She needed to go to the Center after all

"Are you sure you’re okay with this?" Violet asked oncefor the door’s handle

Jay scowled, but not at Violet He was gazing uncertainly at the neglected façade of the warehouse they were parked in front of "Are you sure this is the right place?" It was irime and the desolation in this part of town "This is where all the ic happens?" He chuckled, but Violet could hear the concern and couldn’t help wondering at his use of the wordthere, about having him so close to her team